Looking around further, it seems as if some vegans thought yeast was an animal. This seems to have been based on a very old classification of all living things into either animals or plants. Hmm, though that doesn't make sense as what I read said that yeast would be an animal based on it not having chlorophyll, but in that old way of classifying fungi was put in plants, not animals.

It's been a while, but I thought Fungi is it's own kingdom. It doesn't belong with either plant or animal, but it's own separate kingdom.

When you're eating a mushroom, also a Fungi, you're actually eating the fruiting body, not the entire organism. Which grows underground and can cover miles. Kind of like eating an apple, and not the entire tree.

Plants or Fungi, both are alive, so unless it's really strict diet, I don't see the problem. Of course, some type of vegans will not eat wheat, etc...b/c the plants are killed during harvest. (Of course, the plant will die anyways...so I don't understand the issue.)

(If some vegans won't eat wheat because the plants are killed during the harvest, what the heck DO they eat other than fruit and nuts? Isn't the potato plant killed when you dig up the potato? Do garbanzo bean plants survive harvesting? Corn doesn't, at least not unless you're hand picking each ear.) Do we eat anything that wasn't, at one time, living or the product (like honey) of something that is/was alive?

I was surprised to find out most sugar isn't vegan, they use charred cow bones to whiten it.

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Never heard that one - I thought it was a chemical process, but maybe it's the fuel source for some processes? Either way, the more I read about sugar, the more disgusting it gets. Hugely processed, zero nutritional value, large carbon footprint, and aside from the obvious, comes with a growing list of harmful effects according to recent research. 2011 NY Times article

As for honey, people whose concerns include animal welfare usually steer clear because it's produced by living beings. Maple syrup is often the preferred choice instead.

I think those that consider plants living beings and therefore don't eat any that are "killed" are a pretty small subset.

"I've heard the screams of the vegetables
Watching their skins being peeled
Grated and steamed with no mercy
How do you think that feels
Carrot juice constitutes murder
Greenhouses prisons for slaves
It's time to stop all this gardening
Let's call a spade a spade"

As for honey, people whose concerns include animal welfare usually steer clear because it's produced by living beings. Maple syrup is often the preferred choice instead.

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There are two issues with honey. Über-vegans won't eat honey because it comes from animals, and because honey is meant to be food for baby bees not for humans.

For me, and many others who do eat some animal products, the issue is more with large-scale commercial honey production. They tend to kill a lot of bees "accidentially" (collateral damage) during harvesting, and many also kill the entire bee popoulation in the off-season so that they aren't a "drain on resources." I buy small-scale sustainable honey, but I won't buy the supermarket brands.

Maple syrup is indeed vegan, but it's hardly completely green. It takes a lot of sap and fuel resources to make maple syrup, so it's not the most efficient sweetener. Agave syrup is a much more efficient choice in that respect.

My vegan friend says she uses yeast. But she's vegan because of animal rights and farming practices. She doesn't think yeast infections are good, and thinks that any vegan pro-yeast should be pro-yeast infections.

An interesting tidbit - did you know that industrial beekeepers put in artificial honeycombs that are larger than the natural ones bees make so the bees have to work harder to fill them? It's causing stress on kept bees. Every season they kill the queen to keep them from swarming as well. I read about bee keeping when my vegan friend mentioned she doesn't use honey. I buy local honey form a bee keeper - I'm going to ask her the next time I run low about her practices. I never thought about asking before.

If you want to kill fewer animals eat a meat only diet. Grass fed only. Seriously.

Anyone who works on a farm knows that growing crops kills massive amounts of animals. Mice, shrews, voles, baby birds, fawns, toads, salamanders, snakes, and millions of insects and lower forms of animals are killed when you plow, seed, mow, cultivate, and harvest plant crops. I've seen all of those killed on my farm, which is a vegetable only operation. That happens whether you farm organic or not, big or small. Animals die. A lot of them. And you have to keep killing a few (mice, rats, squirrels) to keep your crops safe after harvest.

Now if you eat grass fed beef, you only kill one animal, and the land that feeds that animal is a nice environment for all those animals that would be killed if that ground were under cultivation.

To me this is a good example of how people can get all worked up without knowing the facts. The comments I read on the FB page showed that most of those people had no idea what was in the buns but were absolutely convinced that the company had lied to them because someone said so on the internet. The crazy thing is, if you don't eat yeast, then you must know that any fluffy bread most likely has yeast in it and you'd know to ask "does this have yeast?" and not "is this vegan?"

What cracked me up the most were all the people who declared that they just KNEW those buns had butter and eggs in them because they got sick when they ate them! Personally, I think it's more likely the vegan "hot dog" made them sick. Those things are nasty.

I was wondering why vegans needed hot dog buns. Now I am wondering what is in a vegan hot dog.

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I think they are mostly made from tofu. The spices and texture of the vegan wiener aim to emulate those of a real wiener. Some vegans/vegetarians like to eat 'mock meat' products for some reason. I like tofu and tofu wieners even, but tofu can't emulate meat or cheese IMO.

And there is no way to my mind that yeast can be seen as an animal product.

Soy can sometimes. There is a Chinese restaurant near me that is 100% vegetarian and their "Chicken Curry" tastes just like the real thing. They use some sort of TVP product to make the "meat". I say this as a meat-eater too.

If I understood that article correctly, vegans thought the hot dog buns had either eggs or dairy in them; it's the owner of the restaurant who seems to have gotten confused and thought they were complaining about the yeast.

I started following a vegan diet about two years ago and read extensively on the subject, and I have NEVER seen yeast listed as something to avoid. Most of my vegan cookbooks use it in their bread recipes.

If you want to kill fewer animals eat a meat only diet. Grass fed only. Seriously.

Anyone who works on a farm knows that growing crops kills massive amounts of animals. Mice, shrews, voles, baby birds, fawns, toads, salamanders, snakes, and millions of insects and lower forms of animals are killed when you plow, seed, mow, cultivate, and harvest plant crops. I've seen all of those killed on my farm, which is a vegetable only operation. That happens whether you farm organic or not, big or small. Animals die. A lot of them. And you have to keep killing a few (mice, rats, squirrels) to keep your crops safe after harvest.

Now if you eat grass fed beef, you only kill one animal, and the land that feeds that animal is a nice environment for all those animals that would be killed if that ground were under cultivation.

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This kind of gets to something I was wondering about with reference to the possible use of an animal product in sugar production and also the bees. Do some vegans really intend to try to not consume anything that bothered the life of an animal or ended it? That's clearly going to be a full-time job if it is possible at all.

I wonder about the people concerned with bees; in all seriousness, what do such people do if termites get in their house?

I'm in favor of animal welfare and think we should do what we can to improve the treatment of animals, but it seems pretty daunting if someone's goal is for no animals to be killed because of anything they do.

(I do think there are logical reasons to be vegan, even for animal rights reasons if the goal is to lessen the suffering of animals. And I know for a lot of people it is for other reasons such as diet etc.)

ETA: It does seem pretty clear that the particular situation talked about in this thread was based just on misunderstandings. Its an interesting look at human psychology that some of the vegans who ate the buns were sure they had been sickened by them when they learned they had animal products in them (though they didn't).